I had the pleasure of sitting in a “special” presentation today. It was one where the presenters had intimate knowledge of some key audience members and yet, structured their deck to go above every one’s head. They talked social and search. They threw in “scary” graphs with steep trends both up and down. And, they threw out names of people that no one in the room understood the connotations of. Except me. The wild card of the presentation. My favorite part was when their Executive VP of Social Strategy said, “I live and breathe Mashable.” Clearly, it was true. Everything he spewed out in the presentation was a direct thought or idea from Mashable.
The comments got me thinking… the easy way to tell if someone’s full of social BS? They mention Mashable in a bow-down-to-the-all-seeing-all-knowing-god. Yes, I read Mashable. But, I sure as hell don’t live and breath by the thoughts in that BLOG. In fact, I take most of the articles with a grain of salt.
Think about it.
Sadly, even today, an easy gauge on how much someone knows about interactive can be based on whether they use the term “hits” or “visits”. While the terms seem to mean the same thing, they are in fact drastically different.
I’ve long said I don’t trust anyone who uses the term “hits” in the wrong context. Today, I’ve added to that philosophy. Today, I still wouldn’t hire an interactive person who uses the term “hits” when really meaning “visitors”. But, I also have no intention of turning my social media strategy over to someone who “lives and breaths Mashable.”
Hate is a strong word, so I’m using dislike instead. There are some phrases out there that really irk me. People use them all the time, I avoid them as much as possible. These are them.
I Miss You. To me, this one is total bullshit. If you truly missed the person, you would do something about it. You would buy a plane ticket, find an event you could both attend, pick up the phone, chat on IM, etc., etc., etc. If you can’t take the effort to do one (or all) of those things, then you don’t really miss the person. Your words are empty. My caveat to this is if you couple it with something specific. For example, “I miss your smile” or “I miss the jokes you send.”
Hope all is well. This one just makes the list. It’s what you say when you haven’t talked to someone in awhile and don’t know what else to say. A lot of times it feels like groveling or fishing for information. Other times, it’s the perfect way to get someone to open up.
Thanks Partner. One of my old bosses said this constantly, with a hint of a country tang. I won’t go into more details.
If you’re serious… You know the phrase. The one where you can almost see the ellipses after it. I said yes, why isn’t that enough? Albeit, I use a version of this one often; the curse of past relationships. Everyone needs/wants to know that they’re undeniably wanted.
I lied. This post has no good. But, since it’s still my birthday, I can write whatever I want.
I’m so over this year it’s not even funny. I’d say it’s the worst yet, but I can’t really top losing a son and his father. However, I’d say this year comes pretty damn close.
- Acid Reflux sucks. Hands down. It sucks the fun and life out of every. single. thing.
- I lost my best friend. You know, that one person who knew EVERY secret. Literally.
- I lost 2 more “friends” when I chose to leave the party at 1am vs. 3am. Apparently, I’m un-fun.
- I made some really moronic business decisions. I’m paying every damn day.
- And the Coup d’etat? Somewhere along the way I started caring for someone and wanting to believe their words. WTF.
Cheers to another ride around the sun.
BlogWorld Expo was in Vegas this week. What’s that saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same? Yep, that about sums up BlogWorld. It was certainly very different from the iMedia Brand Summit I recently attended and, not in a good way. Maybe I’m just not cut out for social media conferences, as many others commented that it was their best conference of the year. Either that, or they don’t get out much 
Let’s start with the Conference itself:
- Completely disorganized. Sure there were some tech improvements for registration and monitoring who attended what session, but that was about it.
- On a plus note, the Exhibit Hall was much larger than last year.
- 99% of sessions sucked. What a let down. Panel after panel of people who had prepared ZERO, weren’t great speakers nor had practiced what little material they did bring. When it was decent, the audio didn’t work or you couldn’t see the presentation.
- Scheduling. BlogWorld tried WAY too hard to pack in too much. Four to six sessions at once with no repetition. What did this lead to? One session being jam packed and the other three-four being practically empty. Not only does it suck for participants and speakers, but I was also embarrassed for them. Who wants to prepare a presentation for five people?
- The conference was filled with more motivational, self-help-like sessions vs. Interactive Media. I guess that’s what happens when you ask social media “experts” to speak. No real campaigns equals no real knowledge.
Now, for the Attendees:
- Sure, there were some cool, down-to-earth people that I really enjoyed meeting or seeing again. But, for the most part, attendees were overly cliquish and full of themselves. I guess the Social Media Boys Club translates to real life.
- Every hotel, restaurant and club in Vegas was vying for this group’s attention. It was a little sick, okay, it was a lot sick. And, boy, were the majority of attendees RUDE. I’ve never seen people act with such a sense of entitlement. As a Brand Marketer, I highly doubt that I will provide half of what I did this year. If I do, my strategy will certainly be different. Unless BlogWorld changes their format, I think they’ll have a rude awakening next year.
- Having a blog or a million followers does NOT exempt you from saying please or thank you. No, I am NOT sending a limo to pick you up at the airport. And, NO, your party is not cool enough for me to get local celebrities to attend it. And yes, both these questions were asked more than once.
- I have never seen so many non-celebrities with “handlers.” OMG. Seriously?! You can’t manage your schedule or get yourself from Point A to B without someone holding your hand? Get over yourself.
- The ass kissing circle jerk of RT’s or @ replies was OUT OF CONTROL. OMFG. I didn’t just throw up in my mouth, I threw up all over the floor; for 4 days straight.
- On a nice note, I got to meet @Comcastcares (Frank). He’s just as cool, nice and down-to-earth as he seems.
Thanks to my BlogWorld experience, I’m looking forward to iMedia Breakthrough now more than ever. Now, that’s a real conference.
I love this post, Your Boss Doesn’t Care About the Conversation, by @MackCollier. It’s been sitting in my favorites for months, waiting for me to expand on it.
The piece takes no prisoners; just tells the truth – no boss cares about the conversation. What do they care about? MONEY. If you’re a smart marketer, you should also be caring about MONEY. And, if you’re truly a smart marketer, you’ll do the following:
- Figure out how to talk to HIPPOS about social media in terms of money
- Figure out how to turn that talk into action by measuring social media AND making money off of it
And right there lies the problem with most “experts.” They can’t do one nor two. Sure, they’ve done a great job with their virtual “personal brand,” but few (if any) can translate that into $$$ for a big brand. When they do, maybe I’ll actually hire one
To sum up Collier, STOP talking about “joining the conversation” and start figuring out what happens AFTER.
To say that this week’s been craptastic, would be an understatement. Then, the fabulous Vegas Exposed campaign debuted.
Originally, I thought it was a “special” campaign courtesy of R&R Partners and LVCVA. I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I was that my hotel room tax dollars were helping pay for this campaign.
But, then it hit me. It was not an LVCVA debacle. Vegas.com was simply following in their beloved footsteps. And, my love for the campaign grew. Ahh, where to begin?
- WTF. Could Mirage’s logo be any bigger?
- Where’s the call to action? Oh, wait, it’s below the fold. Why would you ever put it in the main video? What about a CTA to book a room or show ticket? Hell, I’ll even take “Learn More” for $200.
- Their YouTube Channel indicates that people didn’t bother watching more than one to two of the nine videos already posted. Approximately 15 more are being posted over the next three weeks. Anyone want to take a gamble at how many of those will be watched?
Must be nice to be a Brand Marketer who isn’t held accountable for anything that resembles a real ROI. And yes, I’m jealous
At the beginning of the year, I wrote about the Top 5 Things I’m Already Sick Of. Rereading them, I realize these things haven’t abated and I’m still sick of them. But, here’s a few more things I’m getting sick of.
- Social Media Boys Club. They seem to be getting worse. They’re everywhere. In every industry. Watching people (or brands) do the circle jerk makes me puke.
- The economy sucking. It has sucked the fun out of every. single. job. It has also forced businesses to focus on short term vs. long term goals. Goodbye innovation, hello panicked, reactive choices.
- Whining that you your idea was plagiarized. Give me a break and get over it.
- Strategy Planning. In theory, I love it. But, what a total waste of time. If you’re not focusing on long term goals, why bother? Leave me alone and let me make the stupid, panicked, reactive movements you’re crying about. Oh yeah, and we’re stuck making these decisions because the HIPPOS refuse to focus on anything that could be remotely classified as a long term goal.
- Being sick. ‘Nuff said.
I can only laugh at the pure irony of this one…
For FIVE months I’ve been asking for x. In those five months, I got zero clarification on x. Ironically, after the project tanked because there was no clarification, there was a blog post written clarifying x.
All I can do is say, “Are you fucking kidding me?” and laugh at the irony.
It’s been burning inside me for weeks. I can’t do it.
I want to. I can’t. The angel on my left says, “Don’t”. The devil on my right says, “Do It.”
I’ve re-written it a hundred times, a hundred ways.
My mind is very strong. My heart? It screams, “Please.” My body? It’s developed a painful eye twitch until I do. But, my head is stronger than both. Always has been, always will be.
Dear God, please let this be over soon.
A few weeks ago, there was an article in Ad Age, Want More Out of Your Agencies? Write Better Briefs. True to Ad Age biases, it layed all the blame on Clients who didn’t provide clear enough direction to their BDA.
The article, based on a research “study”, went on to say that 30% of agency time is wasted because of crappy briefs, 40% of briefs give poor direction and only 1% give clear performance expectations.
Those are pretty lame numbers. Sure, Clients might be lazy about doing the math on performance expectations, but, I don’t think the Client is completely to blame. If BDA’s want a better brief, provide better direction.
Not ONCE have I ever received a template from an agency on how my brief should look or what information I should provide. So, I make it up on my own. Since I don’t live in the agency world, I have no idea what information BDA’s may or may not need or what information they truly care about it.
Problems always have two sides. If BDA’s and Clients worked together as partners and didn’t leave the other in the dark, maybe the Brief wouldn’t be such a pain point or time waster.
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